Page 4 - Michael Journal — 2019 October

The Primary Objective of Economic Democracy:

The Flourishing of the Human Person

Excerpts follow from Louis Even’s address to the dend to all and the Compensated Price mechanism:
Annual Congress of the Pilgrims of St. Michael in to guarantee to each and every person a share in the
Thetford Mines, Quebec, in September 1965. enrichment that is the result of association.
Those who read the journal, MICHAEL, under- This technique is not opposed to private owner-
stand that Social Credit, or Economic Democracy, ship of the means of production nor to private en-
is not only about monetary reform and that, even terprise. Experience shows that private enterprise is
though this aspect is of the utmost importance, its the most efficient way to produce an abundance of
reach goes far beyond mere reform of the financial goods. But private property and free enterprise also
system. Social Credit’s financial reforms would break have a social component which must conform to
the monopoly of money and credit, and free societies the principle of “the universal destination of earthly
from debt-money bondage. But there are other mon- goods”.
opolies and other bondages, such as the monopoly There are other goods besides material goods,
of the state. We oppose dictatorship by such as the great good of freedom! It is
the state over individuals as fiercely as a good due to every individual, a good
we battle against the dictatorship of the that no association, no union, no gov-
financial system. ernment (whether local, provincial, or
In fact, the primary objective of So- national) can rightfully trample upon. In-
cial Credit is the unfettered develop- fringements on the freedom and dignity
ment of the human person. It aims for of the human person must not be the
the enrichment of the person through price to pay for economic security. Eco-
free association in opposition to the all nomic security without freedom would
too-common domination of people by have us be like animals in a stable. We
associations. No matter which type of would be well treated but entirely yoked
association — small, large, local, prov- to the decisions of our masters.
incial, federal, a free gathering of indi- Denouncing all of these infringe-
viduals or a compulsory association of ments are central in our movement but
citizens into a nation — all members this is not enough. What we need, above
must benefit from association. Louis Even all, are citizens, patriots and unyield-
This principle applies to sharing the founder of MICHAEL ing men and women that no amount of
wealth of the national economy. Each money nor honour will silence or stop.
individual in society must obtain a share that corres- This is this type of person that is formed in our great
ponds to the enrichment that is the result of life in movement.
society. Facing the task that must be accomplished we
If each individual lived alone and produced all must acknowledge our weakness. We therefore turn
the goods he needed, the total output for the nation to heaven to make our efforts fruitful. We have con-
would be very small compared to what is now pro- secrated our movement, the Pilgrims of St. Michael
duced, thanks to the benefits of association in society. to the Virgin Mary and her Immaculate Heart, as
Without life in society there would be no established she asked at Fatima. The movement and our activ-
social order. Without public goods there would be no ities are placed under the patronage of St. Michael
schools and no research laboratories. Moreover, in- the Archangel. We recite the Rosary daily — even
novations and inventions would neither be shared nor the fifteen decades — and we wear the Miraculous
passed from one generation to the next. Applied sci- Medal [of the Virgin Mary who appeared in 1830 to
ence would not exist and progress would be almost St. Catherine Labouré in Paris, France]. Our full-time
nil. Natural resources would remain as undeveloped pilgrims attend daily Mass.
as they are in primitive societies. We have the advantage and grace of being Cath-
We can conclude that, by far, the greatest portion olics. We believe we can effectively fight the grow-
of today’s productive output is due to life in ordered ing trend toward a centralized world government by
societies. All the members of the association — each opposing it in the spiritual realm with an intensely
and every citizen of the nation — must obtain a share focused Catholic life. We can oppose it in politics
in the enrichment that is the fruit of such association. with the philosophy and concrete financial propos-
This is what the Social Credit philosophy teach- als of Social Credit. v
es regarding economics and why it features a Divi- Louis Even

4 MICHAEL October/November/December 2019 www.michaeljournal.org